Subsequently, we've seen partners, family and friends celebrating love and happily living in a fairer society.

But the job isn't done yet. Our state leaders have an obligation, arising from last year’s marriage legislation, to remove laws forcing transgender partners to divorce if they want their birth certificate to affirm their true gender.

Forced divorce is just one example of the problems transgender and gender diverse people face thanks to antiquated laws that take control of their lives out of their hands and gives it to bureaucrats, doctors and politicians. Our current laws place transgender and gender diverse people into unsafe situations where they are forcibly outed by identification documents.

They are also forced by the government to undergo surgery just so they can amend their birth certificates. For decades these problems have been pointed out to Tasmanian politicians and they have failed to act. Now, we have a chance to provide equality for transgender and gender diverse people. Let’s seize the opportunity and ensure all LGBTI people have the equal dignity Tasmanians voted Yes for.

Andrew Badcock, Tasmanians United for Marriage Equality.

SO, SENATOR Abetz believes spending $3000 and purchasing 200 copies of a book of essays by former Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies (that we can all download for free) is both good use of taxpayers' money, and “of substantial community benefit” (The Examiner, October 31). Not so, Senator.

There's no denying our democracy would, and could, benefit from a greater understanding and knowledge of civics, but publications designed to provide this should be completely free from bias, written by suitably qualified historians, and have no affiliation with, or be funded by, any political party or its think tank. To do otherwise risks the book being regarded as nothing more than political propaganda.

Anne Layton-Bennett, Swan Bay.

PETER Kearney (re-elected West Tamar councillor) is quite wrong, and mischievous, suggesting the council amalgamation issue is over following recent local government elections (The Examiner, November 5).

I stood for West Tamar Council on that very issue receiving considerable support, through feedback in emails and phone calls and enough votes to replace one of his colleagues on that council (as Mr Kearney well knows); sadly, through the quirks of our electoral system, namely ‘proportional representation’, this did not eventuate.

Sadly, the few hundred people who did vote for me will not now have the voice on the West Tamar Council they had hoped for.

Given this scenario one could question if our electoral system is truly democratic?

However, despite Mr Kearney’s comments, I am fully aware there is considerable angst within the community regarding the excessive and unnecessary amount of Tasmanian councils and I will continue to work towards reversing that deplorable situation.

Jim Collier, Legana.

IT WAS wonderful to see marriage equality get through the Australian Parliament to give the same rights and certainty of marriage to all who want it.

A non gender birth certificate though is an outrage, change the world for every one to serve a very small minority.

Discounting the small number of Viviennes, Evelyns, Robins, what about all those made-up bogan names? Most of us do not know if they are referring to an animal, vegetable or mineral, let alone what gender they are.  The Greens have got this completely wrong.

Noel Manning, Newstead.

THE gender reforms being proposed in Tasmania were initiated by Transforming Tasmania and have our full support.

This includes allowing parents the choice to have gender appear on their child's birth certificate if they wish, as well as allowing adults to remove gender from their own birth certificates.

This will help reduce the discrimination that occurs because gender identity doesn't match what is recorded on official documents. It will remove unnecessary government interference from the lives of transgender and gender-diverse people.

There has been a lot of misinformation about the reforms that are proposed, but the most persistent myth is that these reforms require more consultation.

The Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commission conducted extensive consultation in 2016. Any further consultation would just be an unnecessary and harmful delay that impacts most on vulnerable young people.

Roen Meijers, Glenorchy.

PRESSURE to remove reference to a child’s sex on the birth certificate comes from those who seek to impose radical gender ideology on Australian society.

Passing a law which requires such an important document as the birth certificate to conform in any way with this ideology is wrong, because it gives credibility to the notion that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthy. It is truly sad that those who experience confusion about their sexual identity can feel isolated and misunderstood, and this should be addressed, but not by tampering with birth certificates.

Pat Gartlan, Hobart.